Antilles still black listed
in several countries
WILLEMSTAD--Netherlands Antilles still remain on the financial blacklist of several countries despite the fact that over the past years our tax laws have been thoroughly revised. The Curaçao International Financial Services (CIFA) believes that Government has to make a greater effort to get the Netherlands Antilles off these black lists.
The Central Committee of Parliament had a meeting with the CIFA board on Tuesday during which CIFA brought forward its concerns. According to CIFA, this situation is not only harmful to the offshore sector, but also to other sectors as well. Mainly in South America, governments are not aware that the Netherlands Antilles has updated its tax laws and consequently, these countries avoid doing business with the Netherlands Antilles.
Also the fact that the Dutch Financial Authorities AFM does not acknowledge the Central Bank of the Netherlands Antilles as a regulator for the financial sector in the Netherlands Antilles is working against the islands. The problem with this is that when businesses establish themselves in the Netherlands Antilles, they are not recognised anymore, CIFA stated.
In addition the association believes that the procedures to sign treaties take too long. The procedures go through the Foreign Affairs Bureau as the Dutch Government must sign the treaties on behalf of the Netherlands Antilles.
The Association deems necessary that Government appoints a group of people tasked with dealing with several issues concerning the financial sector. More follow-up has to be given to efforts to sign more treaties and more attention is needed for problems the financial sector encounters.
Parliament indicated that it will discuss these issues in the next tri-partite Parliamentary meeting with Aruba and the Netherlands.
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